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So, here’s the story… a bit of history first…

On Wednesday, I drove the Kombi for the first time since early June right after it had gotten tuned up and I had taken my Mother down the Great Ocean Road with Eva and my mother’s friend Nancy. I had been driving Eva’s car recently as I wanted to drive the Kombi less for conservation reasons.

So on Wednesday, Eva needed her own car, so I took my car and headed to Moorabbin to see a client first thing in the morning. At 3 PM when I was done at the client, I tried to start the Kombi, which did its standard 10+ second engine starting… but rather than finally turnover and start, all electricity cut out. I called my friend and mechanic Nick, who gave some suggestions, but I was unable to isolate the issue, so I called RACV, who then called a tow truck whom towed the van to Nick’s nearby garage. Nick quickly realised that in fact the lead had become disconnected from the battery. I had not noticed this upon my own inspection because A: this was the lead in the far back of the battery, and the cable had come undone from the contacts, not the contact undone from the battery and B: I really don’t know my way around cars at all. Nick quickly and kindly fixed her up, and I headed home.

On the way home, I was close to running out of fuel, so I stopped at a nearby petrol station, which unfortunately did not have the required leaded petrol that my van requires. They provided me with an additive which I squirted into the petrol tank and then proceeded to put 51.77 Litres of premium unleaded into the tank filling it all the way up (I keep track of these things). I drove home without incident and that was that.

On Thursday, I drove Eva’s car to work and then back home again. I had to head out to help my friend with some ADSL issues, so I jumped in my van in my garage, and started her up. I smelled a bit of petrol then. However, I always floor the gas pedal when starting the vehicle due to its long-turnover-before-starting routine so I thought I might have flooded the engine a bit. In addition, when I had first acquired the Kombi, passengers in the rear originally complained about car fumes (this went away after the 1st service) and lastly, the Kombi’s heat system was on from the day before, which pumps hot air from the engine compartment to the front. So, between those three things, it didn’t really seem that abnormal, and I figured it would stop smelling after driving it a bit, so I proceeded on my journey being attentive to the odor.

I made it onto Brunswick Street and headed about four blocks down towards the city and was stopped at the Johnston Street traffic light about four cars back. At this point, I could STILL smell the petrol, and was now quite concerned, so i stuck my head out the driver’s side window to see if possibly my petrol tank cap had fallen off or something, and it hadn’t. At that point, the gentlemen in the white truck behind me got out of his car and came up to my window, “Hey Buddy, your car is leaking petrol bad!”

“Shit, I said… I thought I smelled something,” I retorted.

He said, “Look, you should pull over quickly. I’ll block traffic for you. You don’t want to drive. One person’s stray cigarette could be your end.”

I said, “Thank you so much, but I live three blocks away. I’ll just slowly and carefully try to get it back to my garage and take a look.”

At this point, the light turned green and the few cars in front of me went on their way. I very slowly took my time, and decided to make a left turn on Johnston, and head back through the back roads to my house. There were people crossing Johnston, so I took my time, just in case one of them might have had a cigarette that they were going to flick. All the pedestrians were well across the street and I started my turn.

Suddenly, I heard what sounded like a loud backfire! I immediately slowed to a stop and started agressively checking my mirrors. Within seconds I looked out my driver side window to see the same guy that had previously warned me was again out of his vehicle and was on the street yelling to me, “Get out of the car! GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE CAR!!!”

Instantly, the adrenaline flowed and I grabbed my laptop bag on the seat, wrenched out the parking break and jumped out. I looked to the back and there were minimal flames visible. I quickly looked in the car to see if there was anything crucial worth grabbing. I jumped back in and fidgeted to grab my phone in an utter panic thinking that the van was going to blow sky-hi! I grabbed the phone and ran to the sidewalk on Johnston Street.

At this point, someone had begun recording video footage with their still camera and that is where the QuickTime clip below begins.

Within seconds you see an employee of the corner bar on the Northeast corner run out with a fire extinguisher which he empties on the van, but the fire rages on. Another man with a larger extinguisher comes running out of the Provincial Pub on the other corner, and also empties his extinguisher with no luck.

At this point, the flames get more and more wild. All of the traffic both ways on Johnston Street and Brunswick Street is backed up as far as the eye can see. The smoke is pooring North up Brunswick Street. You couldn’t see five meters in that direction.

My flatmate, Fineen, who works in a nearby cafe comes running out and sees me on the sidewalk and gives me a hug. People are collecting everywhere watching the van burn. The next thing I know is Eva calls me… I immediately cut her off, “RUN DOWN TO JOHNSTON STREET NOW!!!!”

“What’s going on?” she frightenly asks!

“RUN DOWN TO JOHNSTON STREET NOW!!!!” I return and hang up.

I guess the rest is in the video. The cops arrived pretty quickly and two fire trucks eventually followed finally extinguishing the fire.

My emotions were really unexplainable at the time. I was somewhat in shock… there were parts of me that started to say a few minutes into the ordeal…

“My van going to explode!” “My van is not going to make it out of this alive”

It was just so fucking surreal. There I was at this famous Melbourne intersection, with the view of the long street and skyline beyond it, with my beloved van in the middle in raging flames.

I remember reading or seeing a conversation either in print or in a film where people are discussing how they want to die. One person says, “I’d rather die by drowning, or in my sleep, as quickly and painless as possible.”

The other person responds, “Not me. I wanna fall out of a skyscraper or go down in a crashing plane. We only get to experience death once. I want the full show.”

That conversation kept coming back to me and all I kept thinking was…

“I don’t want to lose my beloved van, but if I have to… FUCK, this is the way for her to go!”

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R.I.P. Pumpkin - November 1, 2002 to June 23, 2005